


What If Gilbert Went To The Barry's After Getting Cufflinks At The Cuthberts?

by alexsawae



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: #renewannewithane
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-26 08:34:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30103191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexsawae/pseuds/alexsawae
Summary: Gilbert needs some advice, so he decided to consult Mr. Barry, but the Barry's house is a little big, so getting lost in it isn't exactly uncommon. He finds himself eavesdropping on a very particular conversation between Anne and Diana.
Kudos: 19





	1. When He Nears The Wrong Corner

Gilbert was hesitant to stand at the screen door, but when he saw Anne mixing something in a large bowl, he was mesmerized. For some reason, he found himself drawn to her messy braids and sniffling, red nose. He contemplates speaking, but ends up doing so anyway.  
“Hi there.” He opens up the door and sees Anne’s attention directed to him. She stands up straighter. “Is Matthew home?” he steps inside the Cuthbert's house. Anne’s shocked face mixes with her wiping her nose and sniffing in quickly.  
“I was hoping to borrow a pair of cufflinks.” he looks at Anne once more, with tear stains on her cheek, “have you been...chopping onions?” he asks, pointing at her wild appearance. Anne stands there, her mouth agape.  
“I-”  
“My, that radish is spectacular!” Gilbert exclaims, giving him an excuse to look away from Anne and divert his attention to Matthew, coming through the back door with a radish the size of a toddler.  
“Gilbert needs cuff links!” Anne blurts out, speed walking out of the room. Gilbert wants to stop her as he looks at her concerned, but Matthew interrupts his thoughts.  
“Cuff links?”  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Getting the cuff links were already embarrassing enough for Gilbert, to let alone see Anne crying was even worse. As he pulls the reins of his horse, he comes across an idea. He must go see Mr. Barry, for he might just have the answer for it. While he rides his horse to the Barry’s, his mind goes elsewhere. What if Mr. Barry doesn’t know the answer? He surely will, he hopes. Without this word of encouragement, he might be lost. When he gets to the Barry’s he knocks on the door and finds Mrs. Barry, smiling widely.  
“What brings you here, Mr. Blythe?”  
“Is there any way I can talk to Mr. Barry, by any chance?”  
Mrs. Barry nods, thinking. “I think he is in his study room, upstairs. You think you’ll be able to find it?” Gilbert nods, and starts in the house.  
“Thank you, Mrs. Barry.” she nods, and goes back to the lounge room, reading a newspaper article from the Avonlea Gazette. Most likely Anne’s writing. People can’t seem to keep their eyes off of her writing. He goes upstairs and seems to hear a loud ruckus of voices in a room. He hopes it’s Mr. Barry’s room, but as he nears the door, he hears Diana and Anne’s voice. He knows he shouldn’t eavesdrop, but he does so anyway.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Oh it was excruciating!” Anne flops onto Diana’s bed, “I’ve never been more embarrassed.” Anne cries, staring up at the ceiling. Diana smiles at Anne.  
“I can think of a few other examples.” she replies playfully, holding up a gorgeous flower print dress, the one she wore to Aunt Josephine’s party. “And since when did you care about what Gilbert Blythe thinks.”  
Anne sits up in a jerk, preparing to sneeze. Diana grabs a handkerchief off her dress, which she quickly gives to the sneezing redhead. Anne sneezes loudly, slowly pulling her face out of the handkerchief.  
“I don’t!” she breathes, embarrassed, “Why did he have to catch me at such a disastrous state?” Anne asks, whining. Diana grabs a blue dress off her bed and starts to unfold it.  
“When he, on the other hand, looked like he just galloped out of the pages of a novel.” Diana sets the blue dress to the side. “What a splendid chin he has”, she says softly, “I’ve never noticed it before.”  
“A splendid chin?” Diana says, showing her options of dresses. Anne moves forward to the end of the bed. “Choose, wearing a special dress tomorrow will do wonders for your beleaguered soul. You’ll never know who you’ll meet at the fair.” She sets down the dresses on the bed.  
“Why do you think he needed cuff links?” Anne asks, “they aren’t an everyday item.”  
Diana thinks, then replies. “Well maybe it was an excuse.” She says, raising her eyebrows, “To see you.”  
Anne looks up at Diana, but puts her head back down without a word. “Like when a boy goes out of his way to walk you home, even though it’s forbidden.” her words go soft, mostly because she was talking about Jerry. Anne looks at Diana funnily.  
“Bless you, dearest of Diana’s, but what are you talking about?” she asks, confusion in her tone. Diana doesn’t want to answer this question, so she averts the direction of the conversation.  
“Um, remember when Cole said he thought Gilbert had a crush on you?” she says, folding up the floral print dress.  
Anne giggles, “It’s not true,” she breathes a breath before sitting on her knees and looks more serious, “Could it be true?”  
“My name is Diana Barry.” says a mocking tone of Minnie May Barry’s, coming out of her dress closet, wearing one of Diana’s blue dresses. “I don’t want to go to finishing school in Paris.” she mocks Diana, as she sighs.  
“I’ve always put my foot in it with Gilbert.” She says, looking angry at herself. “Always.”  
“Paris is boring and so am I!” Minnie May says. Diana looks at her annoyed, then puts a dress up against Anne.  
“The only time I didn’t was at dance practice, and that’s because I couldn’t find any words at all.” Anne thinks. “Just very... confusing feelings.”  
Diana smirks, “Feelings, do tell!”  
“It was like a veil, hanging before my inner consciousness, was suddenly lifted.” she sighs, dreaming. “And I was Elizabeth Bennet, dancing with Mr. Darcy. Every time our hands touched…” Anne smiles, “And I think he felt it, too. Because his eyes…”  
“I’m reading a monster book!” Minnie May says, making growling sounds. The monster book was none other than Frankenstein, the book Jerry gave Diana to read. Diana snatches the book from Minnie May.  
“Minnie May, get out!” Minnie May smugly giggles and walks out of Diana’s room.  
“His eyes!” Anne flops back down on her back again. “It’s what Ruby observed, when I was telling him about the take notice board!”  
Little did the young redhead know, Minnie May had found an unsuspected visitor outside Diana’s door, red as a beet and eyes bulging. Minnie May opens her mouth, but doesn’t say a word, she just shuts the door and walks down the hallway.  
“When we danced, he was kissing me.”  
The young brunette sits down next to Anne, looking at her confusedly.  
“Anne, I’m going to ask you a question. Don’t be vexed about it, and do answer earnestly.” Continues. “Do you have a crush on Gilbert?” Before the redhead can answer, they hear Mr. Barry outside Diana’s door.


	2. Diana's "Great" Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne's totally embarrassed, but can Diana save the day with her wits?

“Now, Gilbert! That’s the wrong room, boy!” Mr. Barry says, nearing Diana’s room. “I was looking all over, now come along!”   
Anne sits there, eyes almost popping out of her head. No one says a word for a minute before Diana looks at Anne. “Anne...do you think he heard?”  
“Depends on how long he was standing there…” Anne fidgets with her hands.  
Diana looks at her sorrowfully. “Oh, Anne...I’m awfully sorry.”   
“It’s okay-” she starts to say before leaning her upper half back and falling off the bed. She starts to laugh as she lays there on the floor, her braids even messier than before. Diana joins in, laughing and Anne gets up with a little tilt in her head.   
“Oh, well! I guess he knows now!” Diana laughs along with Anne.   
“Dearest Anne, will you accompany me to the county fair?” Diana says, bowing and trying to look regal. Anne laughs at her attempts, but puts out her hand.   
“Hm...I don’t know. I couldn’t possibly show up without telling everyone...I’m secretly courting a lover!” she exclaims.   
“Then dance with me, m’lady!” Diana laughs, spinning Anne around. They start to dance around the room, reeling with laughter.   
“Reel, two, three, four, very good!”   
“Oh, how could Mrs. Lind’s son possibly be in love with Ms. Stacy?” Anne says, twirling.   
“It must have been very hard.”   
“But Ms. Stacy’s life is thrilling! She had a tragical romance!” Anne sighs. “I wish you had a tragical romance, Diana. Maybe then I wouldn’t be so caught up in mine.”  
Diana gasps, playfully. “You’re saying you’re in love with me, my Anne! How could I have been so shameful to disregard your beauty!” Diana says, putting her hand over her face.   
“It’s quite alright, my beauty is disregarded by many!” She says dramatically, looking up at the ceiling. “Well, possibly today, since I look disastrous. Especially my red nose.” she points to her nose, and sniffles.   
“Even on quite a day like this, you still look radiant!” Diana cried, taking Anne’s hand. “How do you do it?”   
“Diana, you are the real beauty here. I’d go crazy for your looks.” Diana smiles.  
“Wait, Anne. Why was Gilbert here in the first place?”  
“I- Well, I don’t know. As far as I knew, he was to travel back to his house after he got his cuff links.”   
Diana lights up. “Let’s go see then, shall we?” Anne puts on a determined face.   
“Alright. Let’s come up with a plan.”  
A few minutes later, Diana is out the door, with an Anne travelling a few feet behind. Anne is wholly nervous, and Diana's plan was all too exciting to drop out of.  
“Father!” she calls. When they both near a doorway, Diana pokes her head in and sees Gilbert and Mr. Blythe speaking.   
“Father! How wonderful it is to see you here. Um, Minnie May is outside, in the muddy puddles. She won’t get out! Mom is sleeping, and I didn’t want to wake her. Could you please help?” Anne, behind Diana, keeps in a laugh. They paid Minnie May some cake if she were to help them, luckily, she had no hesitance to take the offer.   
“That girl is going to be the death of me, hold on a moment, Gilbert.” and with that, Mr. Barry pushes past Diana to get to the gardens. Minnie May is to be very loud, not suspicious, but in a very odd space. He won’t find her for a good while. Diana jumps into position. Stage 1 of the mission has begun.   
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Diana, how good to see you.” Gilbert smiles. Diana sits in the seat across from Gilbert, and smiles sweetly.   
“Yes, I wonder, what brings you here?” she continues, setting her hands firmly on the desk opposite to her. Gilbert smiles.   
“I needed to ask Mr. Barry something.”  
“As in?”  
“I couldn’t possibly tell you what.”  
“And why not?” Diana says, visibly piercing him with her glare.   
“Because you’re-”  
“A girl?” Diana says, twirling her brown hair between her fingers.  
“No!” Gilbert says, shifting his weight to one side. “I came here because I had a question. It’s embarrassing.”  
“I’m all ears.” Diana exclaims, trying so hard to get it out of him. Gilbert sighs and finally caves in.   
“There’s a girl, who might love me. It’s just that, I don’t love her. I love another girl. I’m supposed to be coming to the county fair with her, I just don’t know what to do!” he says. “So I asked your father if the life he has, is well, the one he wanted.”   
Diana sits there, dumbfounded. “And who is this girl?” she says, gritting her teeth together. Anne can’t help but sit there, feeling no hope for herself.   
“I can’t tell you.”  
“The girl you love, you’ll tell me that, at least?”   
Gilbert grimaces. “If I tell you, you’d keep it a secret?” Anne was basically waiting for rejection, for the feeling of a tragical romance.   
“With my life!” Diana says, crossing her heart with her fingers.   
“It’s Anne.” Diana gasps. With a small laugh she says, “oops.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You made it! 10 kudos on last chapter, must be dreaming :D this chapter was a little sloppy, but I hoped you somewhat enjoyed it. See you next chapter <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this chapter! Gosh, I don't really write a lot so when I created this account I hoped I could write some of my inspirations down. I love Anne With An E entirely too much. See you next chapter <3


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